EXCURSUS ON APOLLOS. The name of Apollos does not appear again in the ‘Acts.' The episode was introduced evidently for the purpose of showing how the disciples of the Baptist joined the church of the apostles of Christ. They were without doubt very numerous, and were scattered far beyond the precinc... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 18:1. CAME TO CORINTH. The Corinth which was so intimately connected with the life and work of Paul was a new city, comparatively speaking. The old city of the same name, so renowned in Grecian story, had been completely destroyed by the Roman Mummius, and for a hundred years the capital of the... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 18:2. AND FOUND A CERTAIN JEW NAMED AQUILA, BORN IN PONTUS, LATELY COME FROM ITALY, WITH HIS WIFE PRISCILLA. It seems, on the whole, probable that Aquila and Priscilla two great names in early Christian story were Christians before they met with Paul. There is no mention in the ‘Acts' of their... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 18:3. AND BECAUSE HE WAS OF THE SAME CRAFT, HE ABODE WITH THEM, AND WROUGHT (FOR BY THEIR OCCUPATION THEY WERE TENTMAKERS). We have here the first mention of the handicraft by which, during so many periods of that toilsome, anxious missionary life of his, Paul earned his daily bread. This trade... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 18:4. AND HE REASONED IN THE SYNAGOGUE EVERY SABBATH. According to his invariable custom, speaking the things of the kingdom, first to his own countrymen, and to the strangers who loved the God of the Jews, and worshipped with them in the synagogue. In the desert wanderings, when they came out... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 18:5. AND WHEN SILAS AND TIMOTHEUS WERE COME FROM MACEDONIA, PAUL WAS PRESSED IN THE SPIRIT, AND TESTIFIED TO THE JEWS THAT JESUS WAS CHRIST. The older MSS., instead of the words τω ͂ͅ πνευ ́ ματι, _in the spirit,_ read τω ͂ͅ λόγψ _in the word_ _, _ the translation would then run, ‘Paul was con... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 18:6. AND WHEN THEY OPPOSED THEMSELVES, AND BLASPHEMED. The more than usually violent opposition of the Jews which appears from these words, and also from the apostle's sad, reproachful allusion in the First Epistle, written about this time, to Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians 2:14), was no doubt... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 18:7. AND HE DEPARTED THENCE, AND ENTERED INTO A CERTAIN MAN'S HOUSE, NAMED JUSTUS, ONE THAT WORSHIPPED GOD, WHOSE HOUSE JOINED HARD TO THE SYNAGOGUE. As long as it was possible, Paul seems always to have made the synagogue, or the meeting-place of prayer for the Jews, his centre of work; but t... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 18:8. AND CRISPUS, THE CHIEF RULER OF THE SYNAGOGUE, BELIEVED ON THE LORD WITH ALL HIS HOUSE. On the solemn separation of Paul from the Jews, this ruler of the synagogue, evidently a man of high consideration, joined the Church of Jesus. He was one of the few persons in Corinth whom Paul baptiz... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 18:9. THEN SPAKE THE LORD TO PAUL IN THE NIGHT BY A VISION. A form most probably appeared to the apostle when he heard the voice bidding him be of good courage (see for a similar vision, when a form appeared and a voice was heard, Acts 16:9; Acts 22:18).... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 18:10. I HAVE MUCH PEOPLE IN THIS CITY. ‘How great is the mercy of God! Nineveh, Sodom, Corinth, no city is so corrupt that He does not send preachers of righteousness to the people.... Paul accomplished a greater work in the wicked city of Corinth than in the learned city of Athens; Paul had t... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 18:11. AND HE CONTINUED THERE A YEAR AND SIX MONTHS. This year and a half was the whole period of his residence at Corinth. It was during this lengthened stay that the apostle wrote the two epistles to the church of Thessalonica, the earliest letters we possess of St. Paul.... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 18:12. AND WHEN GALLIO WAS THE DEPUTY OF ACHAIA. The Greek verb rendered ‘was the deputy,' should be translated ‘was the proconsul.' Gloag remarks that the Roman province of Achaia was almost of the same extent with the modern kingdom of Greece. It included the Peloponnesus and the rest of Gree... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 18:13. SAYING, THIS FELLOW PERSUADETH MEN TO WORSHIP GOD CONTRARY TO THE LAW. There is no doubt but that the ‘law' here alluded to was the law not of the Jews, but of the Empire; it was the Roman, not the Mosaic law, which the stranger Jew, Paul, was accused of violating, and the offence consis... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 18:14. AND WHEN PAUL WAS NOW ABOUT TO OPEN HIS MOUTH, GALLIO SAID UNTO THE JEWS. There is little doubt but that Gallio knew something about the Christian sect then becoming numerous in several of the cities of the Empire. One so high in favour as the proconsul of Achaia, who had been necessaril... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 18:15. BUT IF IT BE A QUESTION OF WORDS AND NAMES, AND OF YOUR LAW, LOOK YE TO IT; FOR I WILL BE NO JUDGE OF SUCH MATTERS. If the question turned merely upon a word [the Greek equivalent here is in the singular] and upon certain names, Gallio had most likely in Rome or elsewhere heard the name... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 18:16. AND HE DRAVE THEM FROM THE JUDGMENT-SEAT. The language shows that some force had to be used to induce these importunate accusers to leave the court.... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 18:17. THEN ALL THE GREEKS TOOK SOSTHENES, THE CHIEF RULER OF THE SYNAGOGUE, AND BEAT HIM BEFORE THE JUDGMENT-SEAT. The better MSS. simply read, ‘Then all took,' etc.; _the Greeks_ was a later interpolation. There is little doubt that ‘all' refers here to the Gentile or Greek populace, who, eve... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 18:18. AND PAUL AFTER THIS TARRIED THERE YET A GOOD WHILE. Some months' additional work is covered by this expression. During this period, after the Proconsul Gallio's dismissal of the complaint, Paul no doubt worked unhindered by his Jewish enemies, and was able to lay the foundations of one o... [ Continue Reading ]
_St. Paul returns to Antioch by way of Ephesus and Jerusalem, and there closes his Second Missionary JourneyHe then starts on his Third Missionary Enterprise,_ 19-23. Acts 18:19. AND HE CAME TO EPHESUS, AND LEFT THEM THERE. For a note on Ephesus, see Acts 18:1 of the next chapter, where a lengthened... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 18:20. WHEN THEY DESIRED HIM TO TARRY LONGER WITH THEM. Ephesus appears to have been, from these days onward, favourably disposed to receive the gospel. This earnest request to Paul to stay longer with them on this the occasion of his first visit, no doubt induced him to fix upon the great Asia... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 18:22. AND WHEN HE HAD LANDED AT CAESAREA. This Roman capital of Judaea was the usual and most convenient port for travellers journeying to Jerusalem. AND GONE UP, AND SALUTED THE CHURCH. ‘Gone up,' that is, from the lowlands surrounding Cæsarea to the highlands in the midst of which Jerusale... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 18:23. AND AFTER HE HAD SPENT SOME TIME THERE. Many expositors suppose that during this residence of St. Paul at Antioch took place his famous interview with the leading apostle of the circumcision, on which occasion Paul, to use his own words, withstood Peter to the face, because he was to be... [ Continue Reading ]
_An Episode relating the Spread of the Teaching of John the Baptist and his School, with a short Account of one famous Disciple of the Baptist, A polios of Alexandria, Acts 18:24 to Acts 19:7_. Acts 18:24. AND A CERTAIN JEW NAMED APOLLOS, BORN AT ALEXANDRIA. Embedded in that portion of the ‘Acts of... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 18:25. THIS MAN WAS INSTRUCTED IN THE WAY OF THE LORD. The phrase ‘way of the Lord' is used again in relation to the work of the Baptist (Matthew 3:3; Mark 1:3). ‘The Lord' here signifies ‘Christ;' the expression thus signifies ‘the doctrine of Christ.' Apollos, as John had been, was a firm bel... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 18:26. AND HE BEGAN TO SPEAK BOLDLY IN THE SYNAGOGUE. This was a usual custom with strangers. Our Lord, we know, was in the habit of thus speaking in strange synagogues, as was also Paul in the course of his many journeys. WHOM WHEN AQUILA AND PRISCILLA HAD HEARD. The presence in the Jewish s... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 18:27. AND WHEN HE WAS DISPOSED TO PASS INTO ACHAIA. No doubt it was to Corinth, where Apollos knew the early stories of a great and flourishing church had been laid by the very Paul of whom he had heard so much from Priscilla and her husband. He felt that _there_ was a great work for him to do... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 18:28. FOR HE MIGHTILY CONVINCED THE JEWS, AND THAT PUBLICLY, SHOWING BY THE SCRIPTURES THAT JESUS WAS CHRIST. His special training in the Alexandrian school of Philo, coupled with his great knowledge of the Old Testament Scriptures, eminently fitted the eloquent convert for the peculiar contro... [ Continue Reading ]